Vitula Physicata – World Premiere!

But why pray should I be slave to all those notes, to that role cast over me over the past five hundred years? – Romeo Antoniazi (1919)

Kaffe Matthews and George Kentros met at Fylkingen’s 75th anniversary 2008. Discovering a mutual passion for the violin, they decided to build an oversized one with the intention of giving audience an experience of what it is like to play one. To enjoy the small wooden box vibrating between chin and shoulder, the vibrations intensely subliminal, communicating a richness far beyond the notes.

Vitula physicata then is the product. Its composition by Matthews who recorded Kentros playing the six frequencies a violin maker uses to tune the body using 5 close and carefully positioned microphones, then open strings and harmonics. The first seventeen and a half minutes uses the violin’s frequencies, Kentros then animating the work through playing the score Matthews diffusing his sounds through the 16 channel sound system.

Vitula physicata is Matthews and Kentros first collaboration.

Commissioned by Audiorama with support from Kulturrådet och Konstnärsnämnden.

William Brunson

William Brunson is best known for his electroacoustic music, which has been widely and frequently performed. He has received awards from the Bourges competition, Luigi Russolo Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, The emsPrize and The Visby International Center for Composer’s Alpha Award. His music has been released on several cds including the portrait production Movies for Your Ears. Significant collaborations include several intermedial works with the photographer and video artist Josef Doukkali and dance productions with choreographer Jens Östberg.

Born 1953 in Dallas, Texas, Brunson has been living in Sweden since 1980. From 1982–1987 Brunson was engaged as artistic director/producer at Fylkingen. As a freelance music producer, engineer and sound designer, he has worked for the Swedish Radio, Sveriges Television and Royal Swedish Opera.

Brunson studied English and American Literature at Dartmouth College (BA) and music composition at Columbia University (MA). His current doctoral studies at De Montfort University in Leicester, England focus on intermedial approaches to narrativity in electroacoustic music.

Brunson is currently professor of electroacoustic music and studio director at The Royal College of Music in Stockholm.